Joan Baez Explains Her War Tax Resistance

JB: I pay 40%, which goes to highways and things like that, and I won’t pay…

Q: Medicare perhaps?

JB: I hope so [laughs]. And I won’t pay 60% because it goes to armaments and armaments are wrong.

Q: And you’ll not have any problem with not paying?

JB: Oh, I have plenty of problems with not paying.

Q: And… what’s going to happen?

JB: Well, every year the same thing happens: they… you see, the government has the power to take the money from me. What I’m saying is I won’t give it, I won’t offer it anymore. And they fine me and they do this and do that. But, um… it’s their problem.

Each year, the Tax Foundation divides the amount of taxes collected by
American governments during the year by the amount of money earned in America
over the course of a year.

The group then takes the resulting number and says this is the
proportion of our income-earning activities that we must do just to pay for
the cost of government. If you were to take that proportion and multiply it by
the number of days in the year, you’d get the number of days the “average
American” must work to support government spending.

The Tax Foundation then says: let’s pretend all those days come at the
beginning of the year, so that when they’re over, we’re finally working for
ourselves and our families again. They name the day of this liberation “Tax
Freedom Day,” and, according to their calculations,
today is that day this year.

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